


Study Partners

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: 5000-10000 Words, Drunkenness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 04:24:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ari Boot acquires a study partner. Just some light fun next-gen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Study Partners

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I realize that only I and my friend Evy care enough about Terry Boot to want to read fic from the point of view of his son that I made up. So: this is for Evy! Although I hope everyone else enjoys it too.

"Ari," said Wilberforth Scoone, coming into the boy's dorm. "You've got a study request, did you know?"

Ari lifted his head from his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. If he were pressed, he might have admitted that he was not really studying. The textbook was just clever camouflage.

"I do?"

Wil nodded, going to sit on his own bed on the other side of the room.

Ari looked down at the papers hidden inside his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. On the one hand, he really wanted to keep reading. He had found his second-year epic novel, written in secret and stashed under his mattress, and he was consumed by morbid fascination with his complete lack of writing skills and/or shame.

The novel was titled _Ari Boot's Chimerical Dalliances_, and Ari thought: ABCD, and why did that used to seem so clever? At least it was accurate; chimerical—unrealistic, dalliances—waste of time. He was just getting to the really good part, where Ari Boot (whose full name in the novel was Arillius, which he had thought sounded quite cool) rescued a beautiful girl from near-certain death, and they got up to all sorts of things together.

In fourth year he had gone through and conscientiously scribbled out all of the feminine pronouns, changing them accordingly. Luckily, the goings-on following the rescue scene had been written in a second-year fit of crushing embarrassment and humiliating ignorance, so the terms were vague enough not to require modification.

But as eager as he was to continue being mortified that he was ever twelve, he was really curious about his study request.

He closed his current chapter into his textbook and made his way to the common room.

The study partner request system had been set up by Cedric Chang-Rourke, who had left school two years ago, when Ari was fourteen. It was simple enough, really. Any Ravenclaw who was open to having a study partner wrote their name up on a charmed piece of parchment hung on the wall. Anyone who wanted to pair up with them wrote their name underneath. To anyone but the prospective partner, the second name would look like a blue smear.

The privacy of the study partner request system was taken very seriously. As Cedric used to say, if you knew someone's study partner, you could figure out their strategy—and from there you were one short step away from beating them in the rankings.

The whole thing made Ari feel tired, frankly, but he had put his name up with everyone else's at the beginning of the year. After all, if he had a really good study partner, maybe it would help.

Ari ran a finger down the list, wincing as usual at his real name when he found it. He tapped the blue smear under it twice with his wand to identify himself, and the smear crystallized into a name: _Scorpius Malfoy_.

Ari frowned in confusion. He had hardly ever talked to Scorpius Malfoy. They had partnered up a few times in Potions last year, he remembered, but that was it. He was an odd kid, quiet but intense, focused. He was always quick to defend his family's questionable wartime past against the vaguest of perceived slights. But he had a weirdly twisted sense of humor, Ari recalled. Once in Potions they had been chopping hemlock root, and Scorpius had acted out dramas with the roots as they faced the prospects of their knifey deaths. It was bizarre and more than a little disturbing, Scorpius twitching a bit of hemlock and squeaking, "Oh no! Oh no! Please, at least leave some larger pieces of me to console my family!" But it still made Ari have to stuff his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.

Still, that didn't make them study partners.

Oh, well, he thought, he might as well agree to it. After all, if it didn't work out, it was an easy enough agreement to get out of. He tapped the parchment again, sealing their names together. More text crystallized: a time and a place, written in Scorpius' neat, measured script. _5:00 pm, in the library behind the goblin shelves._

As Ari walked back to the boy's dorm, he chewed his lip, wondering why Scorpius had picked him. He wasn't the most valuable study partner in the world, as Scorpius surely had to have noticed during Potions. He sometimes wondered if there were such a thing as a mis-Sorting. Oh, people said it was impossible, but the truth of the matter was that he had sat in darkness, hat pulled over his eyes, panicking and thinking _Ravenclaw Ravenclaw Ravenclaw_ over and over until the hat shouted it aloud. So he hadn't really given it much of a choice. He knew, of course, that his father would still love him and be proud of him no matter what house he was in. But that was the thing, wasn't it? If it wasn't Ravenclaw, his father would probably say it; "Ari, of course I'll still love you and be proud of you no matter what house you're in," and that was unbearable. Ari couldn't give him the chance.

Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, Ari thought that trying to manipulate which house you were Sorted into just to not disappoint your dad was something more suited to a Hufflepuff than a true Ravenclaw. He worked hard at his studies, but it was more out of guilt and fear than any great passion.

Thinking about it, he had worked himself into an officially glum state by the time he got back to the dorm.

He lay down on his bed and opened his textbook, finding where he had left off in _Ari Boot's Chimerical Dalliances_. Phrases like "manly confidence" and "heroic charm" caught his eye and he felt as if he were doing something unhealthy, like eating nothing but sweets instead of a proper meal. He knew he should really be reading his textbook properly, and he would eventually read the chapter he was meant to for homework, but there were so many other things he'd rather do first, like reading the _Chimerical Dalliances_ and and killing time before his meeting with Scorpius.

***

Of course, because he was _useless_, Ari managed to doze off on top of his chapter. When he woke again the clock read 5:02.

He suspected that Scorpius was the sort to disapprove of lateness, remembering his preciseness in Potions. He flew out of bed and wondered for a moment, idiotically, if he should comb his hair or something. Then he slapped himself and tried to stop thinking so stupidly. It wasn't like he had to make a good impression, and Scorpius chose _him_, after all.

Ari found Scorpius sitting at a small table behind the goblin shelves as promised, light hair practically glowing in the dim light. Scorpius had pale skin and delicate features, as was unsurprising given his lineage, and he looked a bit like he had been carved out of marble, sitting in the ancient dustiness of the library.

"Aristotle Boot," Scorpius said, greeting him, and Ari froze in horror in the middle of sitting down.

"It's Ari," he said firmly, lowering himself the rest of the way into the chair opposite Scorpius.

"Oh," Scorpius said. "You're lucky, then."

"Why?" Ari said, not seeing anything at all lucky about "Aristotle," a name he had been trying to forget ever since he was old enough to speak and express his preferences.

"Because you've got a decent nickname," Scorpius said. "What am I supposed to do with mine? Scorpy? Pius? It's hopeless."

Ari smiled in sympathy.

"You could got by Scor," he said. "That sounds rather cool, like a supervillain in a Muggle film."

"Thanks," Scorpius said dryly, and Ari was thrown off for a moment wondering if he was being sarcastic like Ari's father sometimes was, where it was really sort of affectionate, or if he just genuinely thought Ari was an idiot.

Thinking of Scorpius' parentage, Ari figured it was reasonable to assume that maybe Scorpius hadn't seen as many Muggle films as he had, and oh, he could kick himself. Was it insensitive to bring up Muggle things in front of the Malfoys, with their past? Was it prejudiced and rude to even consider it insensitive, because you were supposed to forget their past? Was he being hopelessly pre-war and old-fashioned?

"Well," he said, wanting to stop himself from saying it even as he was saying it, "study partners, eh?"

"So it would seem," Scorpius said, the edges of his mouth quirking up. "We share all our classes, I believe."

Oh, so _that_ was why Scorpius had chosen him. Strangely, Ari felt disappointed that there had not been a deeper, more secret reason, although he didn't know what that might be.

"Well, what subject would you like to start with?" Ari asked.

Scorpius gave him a withering look.

"Please, Boot," he said. "We can't just jump in. We need to talk strategy."

And there it was, the familiar weariness that settled over Ari whenever people assumed things just because he was a Ravenclaw and he was supposed to be like them. Ari had no study strategy, and the thought suddenly struck him: _please, don't let Scorpius figure out I'm completely useless_. Scorpius might be one of the few people who didn't know yet, and he was going to find out very quickly. Ari wished he had a strategy, wished he could make himself care like Wil Scoone or George Corner and somehow impress Scorpius with his brilliance.

Then Scorpius said, "Let me tell you my comprehensive exam preparation plan," and Ari realized that he wasn't going to be expected to contribute to the strategy bit at all, and felt breathlessly relieved.

Scorpius took out a calendar and began going over how much time they would spend on each subject, how often they would meet.

Ari could only think that Scorpius didn't really want him to do this. Scorpius was so careful about his studies, tracking down someone who was in all his classes and who would presumably (if he hadn't been so tragically mis-Sorted) be of the most use to Scorpius. Scorpius deserved someone better for his efforts, maybe even Cedric Chang-Rourke himself. A sudden jealousy for Scorpius' obvious _worth_ surged inside of Ari, and then just as suddenly twisted into something else hot and urgent, something about blonde hair and pale skin and pink lips discussing classes so calmly. Ari pushed it out of his mind quickly, feeling a bit panicked.

"And then we'll just review the early chapters once more, to make sure we haven't forgot them," Scorpius said. "And, hello, my name is Ari Boot and I look about as interested in this as I would be in watching flobberworms mate. I'm sorry, is my plan not captivating enough for you?"

"No!" Ari blurted out, and then, "Wait. That's not what I meant!"

Scorpius gave him a skeptical look. Finally he said, "I don't particularly care what you think, you know, as long as you help me study."

Ari thought Scorpius probably meant it, and his indifference to Ari made him jealous all over again. But jealousy kept colliding with the other feeling in the pit of his stomach, and it made him feel uncomfortable, so he tried to stop himself from thinking, which was really what he ought to do all the time anyway.

"I'm just tired," he said, and that was true enough. Napping always made him groggy, which didn't stop him from doing it, even though this time it was accidental.

"Well, get some sleep," Scorpius said. "I have no use for a tired study partner. Look, are you in? We'll start tomorrow."

Ari thought about it, studying with Scorpius and trying not to give away the secret of his uselessness. But the thought drifted into his mind, so common and hated that it took only a wisp of it to make Ari decide. The thought was that his father might really like to see Ari's name near the top of the grade rankings, despite "Ari, of course you tried your best."

"Alright," he said. "I'm in."

***

Scorpius' study plan was comprehensive indeed, and required one to two hours of joint study time per day. After about a week Ari was thoroughly tired of thinking so hard, which wasn't to say that he disliked studying with Scorpius. In fact, he rather liked and admired Scorpius. It was the admiration that made everything such hard work, because Ari didn't want to look as stupid as he felt in front of someone so effortlessly intelligent. He had to work harder outside of class, re-reading chapters on his own before he and Scorpius went over them so that he would know what he was talking about.

And as his reward for all his feverish work, he got their study time. One to two hours per day on opposite sides of a tiny table in the library. The table was so small that their knees almost touched underneath it, and for some reason, no matter how much Ari tried and wanted to seem competent, he never found it harder to concentrate than when he was sitting across from Scorpius feeling the heat from their bodies warm the fraction of space between their knees. He would ask Scorpius a question, quizzing him, and when Scorpius began to explain the answer Ari's eyes would wander to wisps of blonde hair against an ivory neck, or slim shoulders underneath drab robes, and he would completely miss whatever it was Scorpius was saying. For a while he would just tell Scorpius he had it right regardless, figuring that Scorpius knew what he was talking about, until Scorpius started saying things wrong deliberately to test Ari's skills as a study partner.

"Electricity is energy used in place of magic," Scorpius would say, Ari's Muggle Studies book open on the desk. "It can be channeled into light, heat or movement, and sometimes it eats souls, although you can win your soul back with a game of chess if you like. _Ari Boot_."

"Sorry," Ari would say in a rush, looking back down at the textbook. "Light, heat or movement. Right."

Ari often wondered why Scorpius put up with him. It was fairly obvious which of them had got the better deal. But although Scorpius often chided him for drifting off or for not thinking up good enough questions to ask, he never seemed to get impatient with Ari himself, or to suggest that their partnership wasn't working out. Ari didn't know why, but he was incredibly grateful for it.

***

Three weeks into their partnership, they were in the library with flashcards and sample essay questions when the usually quiet atmosphere was invaded by _noise_.

"Why are people shouting in the library?" Scorpius murmured crossly. "That shouldn't happen."

"I don't know," Ari said, looking at the graceful way Scorpius' eyebrows drew together. He stood and peered out from behind the goblin shelves.

Albus and James Potter were standing in the library. James' wand was out and pointed at Albus, who was clutching a book to his chest.

"Give it _up_, Al," James was saying.

"Oh," Ari said. "It's just the Potters fighting over _Quidditch Through The Ages_ again."

"Like animals," Scorpius said, behind him. Ari looked over to find him gazing at the Potters with a look of disgust. Seeing Ari glance at him, Scorpius said "Come on" and turned back to their study space. Ari hurried after him.

"You don't like the Potters?" he asked, hardly able to believe it. No one disliked the Potters. Everyone Ari knew seemed to enjoy having them around, as if coming into contact with Potters was somehow lucky. Maybe Scorpius was jealous, Ari thought, sitting down, although that didn't make sense, because what did Scorpius ever have to be jealous about? He was the one who was good-looking and intelligent, even if he wasn't a Potter.

"It's not that I don't like them," Scorpius said, shuffling a pile of flashcards calmly. "It's simply that they've done nothing to gain my approval. I'm not going to fall all over myself loving people just because their father saved the world a few times over. And anyway, it's not much of a secret that he and my father hated each other."

"You think?" Ari said, frowning. "My father always says he thought their bickering had distinct homoerotic overtones."

"What does your father know," Scorpius scoffed, and Ari thought: everything. There was nothing Terry Boot didn't know, no question Ari could ask that he had not thoroughly researched.

Instead of saying this, Ari said, "Well, he was at Hogwarts during that time, wasn't he?"

"_I've_ never heard of him," Scorpius said. "He must not have been that important."

"He was in Dumbledore's Army," Ari replied, just barely stopping himself from adding a childish "so there". They both knew well enough that Scorpius' father wasn't in Dumbledore's Army.

Scorpius gave him a dark look. "Bravo for him," he said tersely.

It _was_ rather bravo for him, Ari thought, irritated. There weren't many wizards who could claim that.

He supposed it was probably the fact that they both knew what Scorpius' father had been doing at the time that made Scorpius so tetchy. It was probably hard, Ari thought, not to have something like that on hand. Probably hard not to be able to say that you came from a tradition of being on the right side of the war.

"Anyway," Scorpius said. "You want to come celebrate Halloween with me?"

"What?" Ari said.

"Halloween," Scorpius said. "It's a holiday. Comes about this time every year. After the feast, you want to come help me finish off some bottles of firewhiskey I've got lying around?"

"Why are you asking me?" Ari said warily, feeling dangerously weak at the thought of spending time with Scorpius and firewhiskey without having to pretend to pay attention to Muggle Studies.

"Because you're my friend, idiot," Scorpius said.

"Oh," Ari said. "Am I? I thought I was your study partner."

"You can be both, you know," Scorpius said. "That's a possibility. Shockingly enough, mutual bitter hatred isn't actually a necessity for a successful studying relationship."

Ari wondered when this had happened, and then it hit him that they _were_ friends. At some point in the last three weeks, Scorpius had begun sitting near him in the classes they shared, which meant all of them. He had explained that it was necessary for them to sit close so they could compare notes during class and make sure they were taking down all the necessary information. But having Scorpius so close meant that they were prone to whispered conversations, even at the expense of notes. And of course he enjoyed spending time with Scorpius, which was what having a friend meant, but he hadn't considered them friends because he had been mostly amazed that Scorpius hadn't gotten sick of him yet.

"Okay," he said.

"Alright," Scorpius said. "Now, let's write outlines for this essay question, yeah?"

***

In _Ari Boot's Chimerical Dalliances_, the beautiful girl as originally written had been meant to look like a sort of female version of Ari, brown hair and glasses, since of course in the world of the novel Arillius Boot was the utmost of physical attraction. After fourth year's careful changes, it had come to read as though Ari were romancing himself, and that was not at all exciting.

Reading the twenty-sixth chapter of the epic in his dorm room before sleeping, it occurred to Ari that the vague images running through his mind had cast the object of his affection as a blonde.

That was odd.

***

Halloween came on a Friday. Ari rushed through the feast more quickly than ever before. Scorpius might have sat next to him, he thought, a little irritated. Instead, he was left sitting between Wil Scoone and Edward Nott. He looked over at Scorpius, sitting halfway down the table from him and talking to some fifth-year girl. Scorpius briefly caught his eye and raised his eyebrows.

After a bit, Scorpius stood languidly, gave Ari a pointed look and left the table. Ari lingered a few moments, took a last sip of pumpkin juice and followed him.

Scorpius had told him to meet him on the third floor, and given him directions through the maze of hallways. After two lefts, a right and another left, Ari reached a door he didn't remember seeing before.

He knocked on it experimentally, and almost immediately the door opened. Scorpius was standing behind it, grinning in the dim light.

"It's a broom closet," he said. "My father told me—some Slytherin in his year enlarged it years ago for, you know, clandestine purposes, and apparently it's not used as a broom closet very often because no one's figured it out yet. Anyway, come in and I can lock it."

Ari hurried in. The enlarged closet was still not very big, the size of a small room. It had been fitted out with shelves that had swollen to a ridiculous size, and there was even a broom or two leaning in the corners. And, as Scorpius had promised, there was a six-pack of firewhiskey on the wooden floor.

"This is fantastic," Ari said. "Do you come here often?"

"Bit early in the night for that line, don't you think?" Scorpius said, muttering a charm over the doorknob.

"What?" Ari said, feeling himself flush.

"Never mind," Scorpius said. "Let's break open those bottles, shall we?"

In a minute, Ari was sitting with his knees drawn up and his back against the wall, taking a long draft of alcohol. The firewhiskey felt warm and comforting in his chest.

Scorpius was standing, leaning against the opposite wall, bottle held casually in one hand.

"You look like a cowboy over there," Ari said. "In a Muggle film. Like you're scoping out the saloon."

"You make very little sense sometimes," Scorpius said loftily. "I've never head of a 'cowboy'. Do you mean a centaur? And if so, I think you're a terrible lightweight, because you've had about one sip."

"No, no," Ari said, "a cowboy. They're like, you know, riding horses... shooting people..."

"I have never done either of those things," Scorpius said.

"Never mind," Ari said. "My dad likes Muggle things. He finds them interesting. He even married a Muggle," Ari added, "although it didn't work out very well."

"So you're a half-blood, then?" Scorpius said.

"Yes," Ari admitted, a touch warily. "Why?'

"Oh, come on, don't get like that," Scorpius said crossly. "I was _going_ to say it was good for me to be seen with a half-blood, since it might stop people from assuming I secretly want to kill them all, but your stupid suspicion has completely put me off joking about it." He put his bottle to his lips, tilted it back and swallowed.

Then he said, "See? Your insensitivity is driving me to drink. Honestly."

Ari smiled despite himself.

He also couldn't help staring just a little bit at the way the firewhiskey had moistened Scorpius' lips.

Three-quarters of a bottle later, Scorpius had slid down the wall and was sitting across from Ari, hands resting on his knees.

He said, "Your dad may have married a Muggle, but my dad married a _bitch_."

"You don't mean that," Ari said. He was beginning to feel extremely comfortable, even against the hard wood wall and floor. It was like being held in a warm cocoon.

"No, it's true," Scorpius said. "You know there hasn't been a Malfoy who wasn't in Slytherin for generations? When I finally broke down and confessed to being a Ravenclaw—this was during Christmas hols of my first year, mind you, it was over dinner, I couldn't take it any longer—my mother turned to my father and said, 'Well, I guess it was pointless marrying you if you can't even produce proper offspring.' Then she stood and left the room. _Really_. What?"

Ari hadn't been able to help laughing a little.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's really not funny, I'm sure you have a lot of deeply-buried issues here, only it's odd to think of you as _offspring_."

"You'd better believe I'm offspring," Scorpius said, pointing the mouth of his firewhiskey bottle at Ari. "I am the _best_ offspring of all time. I'll spring off of anything you like."

Half a bottle after that, Scorpius had crawled over to Ari's side of the enlarged broom closet and was sitting against the wall right next to him. The shoulders were pressing together. Ari felt almost criminally comfortable and strangely dizzy, although he couldn't tell which parts of it were firewhiskey and which parts were something else entirely.

"It's really not even fair to have a house system in the first place, if you think about it," Scorpius said next to him, only slurring a little bit.

"Yeah," Ari said. He shut his eyes and then opened them again. It didn't make him feel any more grounded.

"I mean, putting you in houses," Scorpius said. "It's like... it's like they reduce all of your personality to just one thing and then from then on everyone judges you based on that one thing. I'll have you know—" He tapped Ari's shoulder with his finger, for emphasis. "I'll have you know Scorpius Malfoy is a _very_ complex person. He has a lot of layers."

"Maybe he should take some of them off, then," Ari said. "Doesn't he get warm?"

"What are you talking about?"

Ari had no idea.

"I don't think I even have any Ravenclaw qualities at all," Ari said, to change the subject, or bring it back around, or something like that.

"That's not true," Scorpius said. "You're smart."

"But I don't like doing class work," Ari said. "I like sitting around and thinking about things that will never really happen."

"What house would you belong in, if not Ravenclaw?" Scorpius demanded.

Ari had never told anyone his darkest suspicions before, but he figured, what the hell. Scorpius was his friend and he was sitting really close and his shoulder was really warm and he had soft lips. Or at least they looked soft. What had he been talking about? Oh yes.

"I think I might be secretly a Hufflepuff," he said breathlessly.

"Hey," Scorpius said angrily. "No one says such things about my study partner."

Ari smiled weakly.

"Seriously though," Scorpius said. "I mean, let's be _serious_ here, Aristotle, because this is _serious_. I think you're very smart. So just stop worrying about that already."

"I'm not Aristotle," Ari said. "He's just some dead Greek chap."

When Ari was almost finished with his third bottle, Scorpius said, "Damn, I'm _drunk_."

Ari laughed. Scorpius' hair was so pretty and light, he wanted to touch it. He reached out a hand and began threading soft hair through his fingers.

"Are you petting me?" Scorpius said. "Am I just your dog, Ari Boot?"

"Soft," Ari murmured.

"Oh, this is degrading," Scorpius said. He offered his hand out to the empty room. "Ari," he said, "help me get up."

"I'm sitting down too," Ari pointed out. "I'm next to you. We're on the floor."

"So get up and then help me up," Scorpius said. "It's the least you can do after degrading me."

"Why don't _you_ help _me_ up," Ari said. "It's the least you can do after having soft lips."

Oh, he wasn't sure what he had just meant, right there.

"Why are we standing up, anyway?" he added, thinking that it would mean that the warmth of Scorpius' shoulder would go away.

"I don't know," Scorpius said. "Oh, fine, alright, I was just trying to keep myself from doing _this_."

He set down his bottle of firewhiskey with a definite _clink_, took Ari's chin in his hand and kissed Ari hard.

His lips were as soft as they looked, Ari thought, and it was so easy to fall into the kiss, his mouth opening beneath Scorpius', his hands twisting into soft blonde hair. For an instant, Scorpius caught the tip of Ari's tongue in his teeth, and Ari made a small, strangled noise and bit down on Scorpius' lower lip. Scorpius' entire body was resting against his side now, heavy and warm, and Ari wanted to feel the full weight of Scorpius' body pressed against his. He tugged Scorpius toward him and somehow ended up on his back, Scorpius on top of him.

Scorpius broke their kiss and put his hand on Ari's cheek. He leaned down and brushed soft kisses against the corner of Ari's mouth, the hinge of his jaw, down to his neck. He opened his mouth and let his teeth graze Ari's throat gently, his fingers falling over Ari's lips. Ari reached out his tongue and licked the tips of Scorpius' fingers, causing Scorpius to shudder against him and bite down harder.

Ari reached his hands around Scorpius and slid them up underneath his shirt, tugging at it. Scorpius sat back a little, letting Ari tug his shirt up over his head, his hair emerging tousled and messy. He pushed up Ari's shirt and ran his hands over his chest hungrily. Ari took hold of his shoulders and pulled him down again into another kiss, crushing their mouths together. Scorpius relaxed against him and ground his hips into Ari's. Ari arched against him and let out another muffled sound.

Scorpius ran his hand down lightly Ari's side and stuck two fingers just into the waistband of Ari's boxers, rubbing against his hip. Ari pushed him off to the side and reached down to unbutton his trousers.

***

When Ari woke up, Scorpius had already left the broom closet.

Groggily, Ari pulled on his clothes and stumbled out into the hallway, which was luckily empty. He checked the wall clock. It was nearly 10:30. If he hurried, he could catch the tail end of breakfast before they took all the food away. He wondered if it was really horrifyingly evident that he was wearing the same rumpled clothes as yesterday. Well, it couldn't be helped.

He rushed down to the Great Hall and managed to grab a few pieces of fruit before they disappeared. There were a few other people there, but Scorpius was nowhere to be seen. Well, it was Saturday, after all. On Saturdays their study session was at noon, to free up the rest of the day, so he would see him soon enough.

He ate his breakfast on his way back up to Ravenclaw Tower. Then he took a long, hot shower. When that was done he dried himself off, got dressed and went down to the library to meet Scorpius.

Scorpius didn't come.

Surely he must just be a tiny bit late, Ari thought, jiggling his leg nervously. Of course, Scorpius was never late, but that was just another reason that he might be late now. Wasn't it about time he let himself slip by a good, oh, ten minutes?

After forty-five minutes, that argument was beginning to wear a little thin, and Ari had started to panic. Obviously he had ruined everything forever. Sure, Scorpius had kissed him first, but he was the one who had started it by _thinking_ things about Scorpius during their study sessions. He had probably telegraphed his thoughts to Scorpius somehow. He had introduced things like soft lips into the space between them and accidentally seduced Scorpius with his intensely strong charisma, and now he would probably never pass Charms.

Ari went back to the dorms, head full of dark thoughts, and was momentarily shocked to find Scorpius there alone, curled up on his bed with the latest edition of _Hogwarts, A History_, the one with the introduction by Hermione Granger.

"Ah," he said, his mind careening around rather wildly trying to figure out the appropriate thing to do or say.

Scorpius glanced up at him, and Ari was mildly relieved to see that he looked just as terrified. In some indefinable way, Scorpius had always seemed to be the one in control when it came to he and Ari. Seeing that he, too, was panicked, Ari felt he was able to actually do something himself.

So he went over by Scorpius' bed. He had been going to sit down on it, but thought better—or at least differently—at the last second.

"Er," he said, continuing his streak of intelligent conversation starters.

"Yes, er," Scorpius said, his mouth twitching upwards a tiny bit. The faint hint of a smile disappeared abruptly, as though he had reminded himself of the seriousness of the situation.

Ari wanted to see him smile properly. Well, actually, he wanted to see him smile and then pin him to the bed and kiss him until his lips were raw and incapable of coherent speech, but he thought he'd better take things one step at a time.

"I'm sorry," Ari said in a rush. "I didn't mean to, you know, project any sort of gay thoughts or anything."

Scorpius' mouth twitched again.

"I'm not sure that's exactly what happened," he said, putting a bookmark into _Hogwarts, A History_ and sitting up. His hair was flattened on the left from lying on his side, and Ari really wanted to touch it again.

"Well," he said. "Our studying—I mean, we probably shouldn't—"

"You don't think we should?" Scorpius cut in.

"I don't know," Ari said, tugging at his shirtsleeve nervously. "What are we talking about?"

"Well, what do you think we should do?" Scorpius said, eyes wide.

"Um," Ari said. "To be honest, I rather think we should kiss again."

Scorpius bit his lip and looked away. Ari could swear for an instant that he was looking, a touch longingly, at _Hogwarts, A History_, which had probably never put him through this much distress and sexual tension.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," he said. "I actually rather fancy you a bit, Ari, to be completely frank about it, and I'm just not really the sort for casual sex. It would be too stressful."

"No!" Ari blurted. "No, I don't want that either, I don't want casual anything. Except maybe casual clothes, you know, I don't think we should have to be dressing all formally around each other all the time, that's a bit much for a school relationship—"

"Look, it's just..." Scorpius sighed. "Well, alright, sit down," he said, patting the space on the bed next to him.

Ari complied, feeling more than a little bewildered.

"You'll get tired of me," Scorpius explained, his voice as patient as if he were discussing a knotty Ancient Runes translation.

"I don't think so," Ari said. He looked at Scorpius, his sweet green jumper and blonde hair and light eyes, and he couldn't imagine ever getting tired of him.

"You will, though," Scorpius said. "I mean... alright, look, I'll just lay it all out." He twisted his fingers together anxiously.

"Everyone says I look like my father," he said in a rush, "so we share the same genes, you know, and he started balding fairly early, so if I get involved with you now I'll just be setting myself up to be chucked later when I inevitably start losing my hair and you become repulsed by me."

Ari tried not to laugh, he really did, but the suppressed laughter caused him to choke a little.

"It is not funny!" Scorpius protested. "What are hemlock-root dramas going to matter without my stunning good looks, Ari? Tell me."

"Quite a lot, actually," Ari said. "Just shut up, alright?"

He put his arms around Scorpius' shoulders and pulled him into a long, gentle kiss. Scorpius pressed against him.

Finally, Scorpius drew back and said, "Ari Boot, you are much more attractive than some dead Greek chap."

"And you're much more attractive than your father," Ari replied.

"Thank God," Scorpius said, pulling Ari further into the bed.


End file.
